Our Catholic Benedictine tradition

Monastic context:

Benedictine life, like that of all Christians, is first and foremost a response to God’s astonishing love for humankind, a love expressed in the free gift of his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Love, the motive for monastic life and its goal, tops St. Benedict’s list of tools for good works (RB 5:10, 7:67-69, 4.1-2). Yet the Rule recognizes many ways in which monastics can fail to ground their lives in love. It sets up personal and communal practices that deal directly with human selfishness wherever it occurs and seeks to heal the resulting harm to one’s self and others. Ultimately it is the power of God’s love that is decisive. Indeed, the crowning good work for the monastic is “never to lose hope in God’s mercy” (RB 4:74).

University context:

Benedictine colleges and universities seek, above all, to be grounded in love and animated by it. The “love of learning and desire for God,” so celebrated as part of Benedictine culture, 7 make demands on all and are expansive enough to engage the deepest purpose of persons from all backgrounds who desire to teach and to study, to serve and to lead. We call all to pursue a rigorous and disciplined search for truth and to support one another when that quest becomes difficult . We recognize how easy it is for all to hold on to habits of mind and behavior that diminish one’s own potential or impede the development of others. Yet we possess a confidence borne of long experience in the capacity of all persons to grow and develop, to cultivate habits of mind and behavior that are life-giving and contribute to the good of all. 

Monastic context:

Benedictine monasteries cultivate a fundamental attentiveness to the ways in which God is present in the human mind and heart and, indeed, in all creation. The primary way for doing this is through the monastery’s daily rhythm of liturgical prayer. St. Benedict directs that nothing is to be preferred to it (RB 43.3). This daily experience of community prayer is supported and deepened by individual spiritual reading, a practice that Benedictines call by its Latin name, lectio divina, in order to differentiate it from reading undertaken to gain information or knowledge. Lectio divina is the slow meditative reading of Scriptures and other sacred texts with the intention of discerning how God is at work right now in the world and calling within the individual’s own heart. For a monastic, the daily movement between common liturgical prayer and lectio divina opens up new space within where qualities and virtues such as compassion, integrity and courage can develop and grow strong.

University context:

Benedictine educational institutions seek to create and preserve a noticeable rhythm of public prayer and private attention to the sources of religious inspiration. We strive to ensure that the design and life of the campus promotes a spirit of transcendence and mindfulness, encouraging all to cultivate a life of prayer appropriate to their own faith. The intent of all of this is to cultivate by analogy a fundamental openness to the work of intellectual and personal transformation. It is important that the thinking of all members – students, faculty and staff – be shaped by movement between shared engagement with ideas and close personal reading of “texts” (whether written, aural or visual). It is our intent to foster connections between the subjects that persons study and the fundamental, deep purpose of their lives. 

Monastic context:

Stability shapes a Benedictine monastery. All of its members commit themselves to seeking God. They resolve to pursue this, their heart’s deepest desire, together, day in and day out, in good times and in bad, throughout the entire span of their lives. 

University context:

Benedictine educational institutions put great energy into cultivating lasting relationships between students, faculty and staff. We seek to embed a vigorous exchange of ideas within the pattern of life on campus, recognizing the shared human standing of all. We strive to foster a pervasive commitment to share our intellectual passions, our bewilderments and breakthroughs with one another. We do this because we believe that persevering together in the pursuit of wisdom – as opposed to engaging one another only enough to achieve private understanding – builds strong and lasting relationships and makes remarkably powerful growth possible for all.

Monastic context:

The aim of life for Benedictines is the same as it is for all Christians – to be transformed in every part of one’s life so that God’s very image, in which each has been created, becomes palpable and transparent. The Benedictine word for this way of life is conversatio, the process of letting go in day-to-day life of self-centered preoccupations and false securities so that the divine life at the core of one’s being becomes manifest in a trustworthy pattern of living. Conversatio is a commitment to engage in practices that over a lifetime bring about conversion into the likeness of Christ and, in particular, Christ’s giving of self for others. This transformation proceeds according to small steps; and it is tested in unexpected ways over a lifetime. To come to fruition conversatio requires stability, discipline, faithfulness and resilience. 

University context:

Benedictine colleges and universities attempt to call all members of the campus community to move out of their comfort zone for the sake of learning and integrity. We are not afraid to focus on habits of mind that will require many years to develop. In curricular and co-curricular programs we seek to challenge realities we often take for granted, to foster intellectual and personal breakthroughs, and to cultivate habits of mind that will transform students, faculty and staff alike, nurturing deep learning and generosity over a lifetime.

Monastic context:

Benedictine life is unthinkable without obedience, a value that cuts against the grain of much in contemporary life. It is often forgotten that the root of the word obedience is found in audire, “to listen.” When St. Benedict begins the Rule with the exhortation “Listen,” he emphasizes the stance of obedience required of all who seek wisdom. He asks for obedience not only to the spiritual head of the monastery, but to the other members of the community (RB 71:1-2). Each has something of value to say about true fullness of life. For the monastic, obedience is putting into practice what is learned by listening to the other “with the ear of the heart” (RB Prol. 1). Centuries of Benedictine experience show that such listening requires a willingness to submit to imperatives outside of the self, something that is never easy to do, but that is deeply rewarding.

University context:

Teaching and learning are impossible without obedience, without listening to others with the awareness that no one possesses all truth, or knows everything worth knowing. In intellectual inquiry, obedience means respecting the integrity of disciplinary methods of study and maintaining fidelity to the evidence, wherever it leads. Obedience helps to form an intellectual community, drawing on a number of disciplines, respecting the methodologies proper to each. All members of a Benedictine educational institution are encouraged to work to understand and respect the viewpoints of others, to adhere to standards of excellence in thinking and communicating. Learning to listen well and respond deeply to others and the world is a prerequisite for growing in wisdom and it requires courage and perseverance. 

Monastic context:

Discipline is a way of focusing energy and attention on what matters most. Benedictine life is built around a fundamental discipline of prayer, work and relationships that is set forth in the Rule and that seeks to free a monastic to take delight in God’s presence within the self, the community and the world. New members are taught how to cultivate the discipline of monastic life and to realize that it takes a lifetime of practice to develop fully the skills needed to live life freely and wholeheartedly on the deepest of levels. 

University context:

No true learning takes place without discipline, without the hard work of stretching beyond one’s comfort level to master complex practices and ideas within a variety of fields. In pursuing academic excellence a Benedictine institution of higher education strives to shape the classroom, laboratory, and studio – as well as social interactions and athletics, service and leadership programs – so as to model and call forth personal discipline on the part of students. The goal is to move from a discipline imposed from the outside to a mature self-discipline in which a person possesses a robust love of learning and, in setting his or her own goals, is able to imagine and pursue the steps necessary to achieve those goals.

Monastic context:

Humility is St. Benedict’s word for wisdom. He begins his extended description of the twelve degrees of humility by describing awe at the abiding presence of God and ends depicting a love that casts out fear (RB 7). Monastics seek an accurate knowledge of self, a pervasive awareness of God’s presence in their lives and their dependence on others and creation itself. They recognize their limitations without losing hope and accept their gifts without becoming arrogant because the measure of their lives is not found in themselves alone. There is always room for additional personal growth, for giving one’s self for the good of others. 

University context:

Time and again, this simple, balanced perspective engages the self-understanding and pursuits of students, faculty and staff in Benedictine educational institutions. By ourselves alone, none of us can learn what we most need to know or bring to completion what most needs to be done. We strive to engage the insights and expertise of a wide variety of persons in our educational mission so that each of us can discover what we are good at doing and what we need others’ help to achieve. We seek to cultivate the multi-faceted exploration of truth in academic disciplines, confident that in a rigorous and wide-ranging pursuit of academic excellence, all participants are freed to discern and cultivate the gifts they possess and thereby contribute to the well-being of all.

Monastic context:

At its core the Rule seeks to foster a fundamental reverence toward the creation that God has made. St. Benedict exhorts his followers to regard all the tools and goods of the monastery as the sacred vessels of the altar (RB 31.10). Benedictine monastics do not simply use up what has been given to them, nor do they aim to live in poverty. Instead, they prize good stewardship, the respectful use of material things for the good of all, with a special eye to frugality, integrity of form and function, and the capacity of beauty to communicate the presence and power of God. 

University context:

In Benedictine educational institutions we seek to foster awareness that we are part of a larger ecology and that the environment – human as well as non-human – has been given by God for the sake of all. We encourage the creative and sustainable use of resources and their just distribution for the good of all. We seek to sharpen awareness of noteworthy contributions – past and present – to the well-being of society and the earth itself, trying to keep strong the memory and practice of human creativity and generosity. At every turn we strive to promote the study and practice of the arts, aware of their capacity to bring all to a deeper recognition of the nature and purpose of life itself. 

Monastic context:

St. Benedict sees Christ present within the monastery in Scripture and liturgy, and in the person of the abbot / prioress, the sick, and each of the members of the monastic community. However, St. Benedict accords special attention to Christ’s unexpected arrival from outside in the person of the guest, whom he describes alternately as poor and as a stranger. Christ presents himself in the outsider’s vulnerability and calls the monastic to put aside individual plans and pre-occupations in order to let the unexpected person in, to help her get established, to respond to his most pressing needs. And when the outsider comes to experience being “at home” in this new place, for however brief the stay, the monastic discovers new awareness of the common journey in which all are engaged. A blessing accompanies both the offering and the receiving of hospitality. 

University context:

Within Benedictine educational institutions, we strive to extend hospitality to each member of the educational community, especially to those new to the community and/or coming from other traditions. More broadly, we seek to cultivate curricular and co-curricular ways to recognize the needs and call forth the talents and gifts of persons of differing capacities and dispositions, of diverse races, cultures and backgrounds. The educational community that can result breaks down any residual sense of insiders versus outsiders and manifests an openness to being transformed by engaging deeply with the other – be it an idea, a person or an experience.

Monastic context:

Benedictine monastic community is rooted in a particular place in which mutual service, especially in the mundane areas of everyday life, is demanded of all with no expectation of individual reward. It is a challenge to contribute to a living, flesh and blood community on such terms. The qualities of character that are required are nurtured by the individual community’s sense of its mission, the witness of monastic forebears and the broader communion of saints across the ages. The imagination to persevere and thrive in such a life is enriched through the example of communities across the world – monastic and non-monastic, Christian and non-Christian, religious and non-religious – that make sustained practical efforts to foster human well-being, often in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Though directly grounded in a particular place, the commitments and aspirations of Benedictine life can only bear fruit if they stretch to horizons that are truly universal. 

University context:

Benedictine colleges and universities seek to enlist this practical focus on community building and its profound openness to human history and global experience. It is our intent to cultivate a focus on the nature of responsible living – a focus that is enriched by local example, grounded in the wisdom of the past and refreshed by the perspectives of other cultures. We attempt to provide students with a tangible experience of community, deepened by curricular and co-curricular programs, to help them make the connection between the individual and the communal, the local and the global, the present and the past. In so doing, we seek to ensure that students cultivate the disposition to serve others, near and far, in meeting their most critical needs. 

• The Rule of St. Benedict (RB 1980) - Read the digital edition of the Rule
• The Medal of St. Benedict - Read about the Medal on the Order of St. Benedict's website

Peace [Pax] is indeed one of the principal mottos of the Benedictine order. It is primary in the Benedictine lexicon of spirituality. It is by no means an overstatement to say that as a motto, Pax is the Benedictine Way. When one visit various Benedictine monasteries, one frequently sees this simple Latin word, ‘Pax’, or its slightly longer formulation, ‘Pax intrantibus’ – ‘peace to those entering here’ - above a main doorway or entrance.

At our beautiful university grounds here at Saint Martin’s, it is virtually impossible not to encounter the very peace of this place. This is deeply intentional, and not accidental. Without it, our university and its liberal arts education would simply not be able to function.

Such peace is both invisible, yet unmistakably present wherever you look. And yet peace cannot be ‘bottled up’, nor bought and sold in a utilitarian manner. It is notoriously difficult to positively identify and point towards – There it is! This is Peace. And yet, despite such difficulty in directly identifying it, we nevertheless know of it in a very intimate and personal way, encapsulated by the famous Pauline phrase: the ‘peace of God which surpasses all understanding’ (Phil 4, 7). With this difficulty in mind, this is one reason why we celebrate the lives of the Saints and especially Sts. Martin and Benedict in particular. Because it is in their lives that are so uniquely, yet decisively rooted in Christ that we can indeed point towards them with unflinching confidence and say, ‘Yes. This person here, this is a man of peace!’ 

More often than not, however, we come to know and value such peace by way of contrasts, its absence when it is taken from us. When in certain contexts and situations, or often within ourselves, we are deprived of that very peace and are instead filled with restlessness, conflict, anxiety, aggression, violence, disorder and chaos. 

We at this University immediately enjoy the fruits of the Abbey as it is part and parcel of the Benedictine vocation to continuously ‘seek out peace and pursue it’, as Benedict states famously in the Prologue to the Rule:

It is to find workers in his cause that God calls out like that to all peoples. He calls to us in another way in the psalm when he says, Who is there with a love of true life and a longing for days of real fulfillment? If you should hear that call and answer, ‘I’, this is the answer you will receive from God: If you wish to have that true life that lasts forever, then keep your tongue from evil; let your lips speak no deceit; turn away from wrongdoing; seek out peace and pursue it. (Prologue, n. 14-17)

Without peace, as the experience of the Benedictine way attests for over fifteen hundred years, our prayer and dedication towards God can seldom get off the ground, nor is there much patience and endurance to give of oneself charitably and hospitably towards others in need. Without peace, there is neither ‘ora’ [prayer], ‘labora’ [work] nor ‘lege’ [study], other equally foundational terms within the Benedictine spiritual lexicon. Peace, is thus both externally manifested in order and stability, as well as internally rooted in a life directed towards God and others. With St. Benedict as an icon of peace, let us say something now of the externals and Benedict’s ongoing example today.

Externally, peace occurs among people when we actively recognize each other’s common human dignity, our created equality in the image and likeness of God, as Christ teaches on the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Mt 5,9) Externally, peace emerges when our common human dignity is rightfully preserved and justly promoted within our various communities and societies that are ordered towards such inviolable origins.

In the bleak days shortly after the end of WWII, as Europe began the long process of rebuilding from the rubble and horrors of utopian ideologies, of man ‘succumbing to the ancient temptation of seeking to redeem himself by himself’, the cultural legacy of Benedict and the Benedictine way of peace was frequently invoked as the Benedictines had none other than rebuilt a civilization and culture of Christian humanism after the downfall of the Roman empire and the chaos, disease and moral decline that had ensued. Then again in October of 1964, Paul VI declared St. Benedict as the ‘Patron of Europe’ in recognition of the incredible work that he had achieved in and through his Rule in the formation of this Western civilization and culture, a peace rooted in both external order and institutions, as well as anchored in its ethical and spiritual foundations. So too today, the Benedictine way of peace shines like a bright star in the dark night, as the ‘great monk is still a true master at whose school we can learn to become proficient in true humanism.’ (Benedict XVI, April 9, 2008)

“Seek out peace and pursue it” 

Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue, 17.

In his 2018 Address to the Benedictine Confederation, Pope Francis remarked: “Benedictine spirituality is renowned for its motto: Ora et labora et lege. Prayer, work, study. In contemplative life, God often announces his presence in unexpected ways. In meditating on the Word of God in the Lectio Divina, we are called to abide in religious listening to his voice in order to live in constant and joyful obedience. Prayer engenders in our hearts — ready to receive the surprising gifts that God is always ready to give us — a spirit of renewed fervor which leads us, through our daily work, to seek to share the gifts of God’s wisdom with others: with the community, with those who come to the monastery in their search for God (“quaerere Deum”), and with those who study in your schools, colleges and universities. Thus, an ever renewed and reinvigorated spiritual life is thereby created.”

This is indeed a beautiful, concise synthesis of the Benedictine Motto – Ora et Labora et Lege [Pray, Work and Study]. The principle emphasis of this motto does not present these various tasks as discreet and separate, but as united. However, this famous phrase has only been associated with Benedictine monasticism since the 19^th Century – which is relatively ‘recent’, given the long history of Benedictine monasticism and in fact does not occur directly in Benedict’s Rule. 

Whereas the acronym, UIOGD [Ut In Omnibus Glorificetur Deus] the Latin phrase “that in all things God may be glorified” is a biblical quotation from 1Pt 4,11, which St. Benedict refers to in chapter 57.9 of the Rule. Similar to ora et labora, this motto equally appeals to this expansive view, with the emphasis placed on “in all things”, signaling that Benedictine spirituality refuses to isolate and divorce our “work” from our “prayer” nor our “study”. Rather, it presents these various facets of life as a unity, from the inner life to the outer life, the sacred from the secular and mundane such that nothing nor no one is trivial and insignificant.

John Cassian, a primary influence on Benedict and the foundations of Benedictine spirituality, speaks directly to this integration of life:

When all love, all desire, all zeal, all impulse, our every thought, all that we live, that we speak, that we breathe, will be God, then that unity the Father now has with the Son and the Son with the Father will fill our feelings and our understanding. Just as God has loved us with a sincere and pure and unbreakable love, so may we also be joined to God with an unending and inseparable love. Then we shall be united to this same God in such a way that whatever we breathe, whatever we think, whatever we speak may be God. [Conferences, 10.7.2]